Imagine a situation where you were hoping to enter your target school, but, sadly, got rejected. This article will help you understand the reasons for such failure and help you get more optimistic
The first thing you should know is that all the best universities are really picky. It is well known that out of a hundred applicants, only a dozen or so get acceptance letters. The better the school, the less is your chance to get lucky. For instance, just this year Harvard rejected more than eight thousand candidates. It all comes down to the statistics – there is a certain chance of you getting accepted, but the chance of you getting rejected is always bigger.
If you have talents and can boast many academic achievements, rejection may hit you even harder than most. That’s why we are offering you three possible explanations why it happened:
There are too many people like you among the candidates
Diversity is one of the key factors of the university’s atmosphere. That’s why every top school is trying to keep it up. How they’re doing that, often remains a mystery.
The possible reason of you getting rejected might be the fact that there are too many candidates exactly like you: with high academic results, work experience and great test scores. These things are normally what gets you accepted, but sometimes they may harm your case.
It’s not only about your academic and working background, though: the reason for rejection may be that there are too many white people, too many males or too many management undergraduates applying to the university this year.
If you want to reapply, try to highlight something from your experience, achievements and background that makes you different from other candidates. Everyone can find something special in their lives to present it to the admissions committee.
Not much determination
The other reason could be that the admissions committee, upon reading your essays, has believed you to be lacking self-awareness and dedication to self-development. You should be more careful when you answer the ‘greatest weaknesses’ question in your admissions essay.
This doesn’t mean you have to hide your weaknesses, though: just show how unique they are and how your getting accepted to your target school will help you turn them into real strengths.
Avoid passive-aggressive statements, excuses and bragging in your essays. Things like that may mean that you are not ready to obtain your Master’s yet. Be honest and truthful and highlight your dedication to self-development and desire for getting new experience.
Bad test or GPA results
Sometimes, applicants with interesting backgrounds and experience just have exceptionally low GMAT scores or academic results. If that is the case, on reapplying you should use the opportunity of the optional essay to try and explain away such poor results. You can also retake the required tests with more preparation time and pick up one or two more college courses to enhance your results.
Another way is planning carefully what schools you are going to apply to. If your test results are poor, then top schools are not for you, but there are many good schools apart from Harvard and Stanford.
Anyway, after your application is written and sent, you can’t do anything about it. You won’t be learning how many candidates there really were competing with you and what kind of person was the one who decided to reject your application.
Reapplying is hard, but it’s one of the things you have to learn. Sometimes, failure is not your fault, just some bad luck. To be a really successful person, you have to be familiar not only with successes, but with failures as well.
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